


A Conflict of Truths

by peachywise



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV), The Umbrella Academy (TV) RPF
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Gen, Love Confessions, M/M, One Shot, frenemies to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 19:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18697579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachywise/pseuds/peachywise
Summary: You needed to tell Klaus something.You needed to tell Klaus you loved him, but the idiot decided to just up and walk through your door all cut up and bruised, evading your questions like this is all some infuriating game of detective.You'd get it out of him though.You always do.





	A Conflict of Truths

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! i'm thinking about making a collection of one shots rather than just posting them up one by one. let me know what you think!! also hope y'all enjoy. readers pronounce as always are they/them.

He was late.

You couldn’t believe he was late. Well, actually you could believe it, it was Klaus after all, but that was the fucking problem! Maybe you  _had_  been a bit brash in your phone call earlier that day. He’d all but picked up and said hello when you rattled, “meet me at my house at six,” adding in an apparently ignorable “don’t be late,” just before you hung up. But Christ, any normal person would have taken that abruptness at least a bit seriously and not have let a little more than forty-five minutes pass without a call or a text.

It was a shock to you that you loved the idiot.

Yep. You loved the eccentric maniac, and you pretty bloody annoyed about it. It had hit you all of a sudden— the realization. Hit you like a sucker punch that knocked out all your teeth and rattled your brain so much that you couldn’t even make a single coherent thought. Must be what Klaus's head was like. You’d just been out to lunch with your boyfriend who droned on and on about inconsequential judgments of his coworkers and work and you just… snapped. Broke up with him on the spot. Looking at him felt like looking into a void. He didn’t make you laugh, not anymore. He didn’t seem to hold a particular kind of empathy that pushed you. He just simply coddled you and then dropped your concerns as if that inconsequential bit of validation was enough to justify them and actually seem like he gave a shit.

Klaus was different. Infuriatingly so. You’d been friends for a while, if that’s what you would call it. You had met him through Ben, since where Ben went, Klaus seemed to follow, and the man all but latched himself onto you. Said he liked your spirit. Maybe that’s because the first time you met you knee’d him in the nuts after he jump-scared you from behind a door. But God, did he make you laugh. You felt alive with him in a way you’d never experienced before, a certain vivacity being brought out in you from your constant rapport. He challenged you in ways you’d never been challenged before, and you did the same for him. You’d called him just after breaking up with your boyfriend in your flurry of full realization that you loved Klaus. And then the bitch had the audacity to be late.

You weren’t even fully inclined to go out of your room to greet him when he finally burst through your door— no knock or anything— hollering dramatically, “honey, I’m home and I have a surprise!”

“How nice!” you gritted out, stepping out of your bedroom door to your apartments main area. “Is the surprise you being late? I swear to—” Lifting your head as you rounded the small corner, you finally came face to face with your friend, in all his bloody nose, split lip, bruised glory.

“What the hell?”

“Surprise,” Klaus said, giving pathetically weak jazz hands.

Rushing over, you lifted your hand to gently grasp his chin, tilting his head slightly to inspect the mess. Klaus flinched so slightly you barely noticed it. “What happened?” You questioned, dropping your hand and taking a step back, crossing your arms over your chest.

He just strolled on over to your couch and plopped himself down, grabbing one of your throw pillows and cuddling it to his own chest, tilting his head so it rested on his shoulder. He gave you an innocent puppy dog look, but as cute as it was, it didn’t work on you. You might not have powers like the rest of them, but shit, you’re immunity to that look came in handy on multiple occasions.

“Well you see, there was a certain spirit who couldn’t move on until we recreated the scene from Ghost. Next thing you know, the pottery wheel is spinning out of control, the clay flying in all directions, and my face is slamming down on the table,” he went on. It was obviously a lie; for one, he never was the most particularly believable storyteller, no matter how weird and actually outlandish his life was. Second of all, the moment your eyes landed on his hands as they absentmindedly played with the tassels on the pillows, you noticed those were bruised and slightly split too.

So it was a fight then.

Of fucking course.

Rolling your eyes, you walked out of your common area into your tiny kitchenette area without so much as a word in reply. Klaus sputtered a bit as he stood back up from his spot, rambling out, “now I get that your mad, but it was unavoidable! Here I was thinking you’d be understanding, maybe even help a poor guy out with his wounds, and—” as you walked back into the room with a bag of frozen peas and a wet washcloth, he closed his mouth.

You quirked your eyebrow up, asking plainly, “you finished talking to yourself, or do you just need to hear your voice for a while more?” He shook his head no, and wordlessly sat back down on the couch. “well look at that, seems like some brain cells still remain,” you mused under your breath teasingly. Klaus gave a sarcastic laugh in return, adding a small quip of, “cute,” as you made your way to stand in front of him.

Handing him the frozen peas, you muttered a small, “for your hands,” already more focused on cleaning the blood off his face to see if there was anything more serious to it. “Someone’s feeling bossy today, I like it,” Klaus commented as you cleaned off the dried blood from under his nose. You leaned back slightly only to give him a serious look that hopefully read ‘shut up and let me work.’ He gave you a shit eating grin in return. You delightfully chose to ignore it. 

“I don’t think it’s broken but you’re probably going to end up with a black eye,” you assessed, moving to his side to look at his nose from a different angle. From the front, you had always noticed his nose looked just slightly tilted to the right, nothing anyone would really notice had they not heavily observed it. But from the side, it looked just as normal as well.

“So why don’t you tell me who you got into a fight with and why?” You continued, leaning back up to peer down at him inquisitively.

“A leprechaun. Stole all me lucky charms.”

“Try again.”

“Found a coat I wanted at goodwill, but as I went and grabbed it, so did this seventeen-year-old girl. The moment we locked eyes the showdown began.”

 _Hmm_. “So where is the coat?” You questioned, and Klaus pouted as he replied, “she won.”

You couldn’t stop the snort that escaped you as you shook your head, adjusting the frozen bag on his hands. “You were close with that one, but how about we try one more time?” You tightly smiled, and Klaus huffed out a small little breath.

“What a relentless creature you are, but alright, I’ll tell you." He Leaned back deeper into the chair as he looked you dead in the eye. A serious look befell his face, one you hadn’t seen many times before, and your heart seized up for a moment. Was it that bad? Usually, he evaded just to be funny and to annoy you— both of which he accomplished, but what the hell was he keeping from you? It had to have been pretty serious.

“Luther was jealous that my face is more beautiful than his, so the big old brute just attacked me out of nowhere. It isn’t going to scar, is it doc?”

Well. Never fucking mind, then.

Picking up your pillow, you smacked him with it over and over, punctuated only by your words of “don’t,”  _smack_ , “be,”  _smack_ , “dumb!”  _smack._  He lifted his hands to defend himself from your attack, dropping the pea bag that had been resting on them to the floor.

“Hey!” he cried out, cracking a wide grin and a laugh as he tore the pillow from your grip, tossing it across the room to get it away from you. “Am I not already wounded enough for you? Not that I’m against rough love and all.” You huffed out in your defeat.

“Whatever,” you muttered, picking back up the washcloth and leaning down to his sitting height again. Klaus had split his lip open once more, probably from smiling like a damned Cheshire cat. “Tell me or don’t tell me, I don’t care.” You totally did. “You’re still late and I’m mad about it." 

“I’m sorry, but it couldn’t be avoided,” Klaus commented back, as you wordlessly wiped the blood from his lip, not bothering to offer a reply in return. His hand moved up to smoothly grip your wrist, tugging your hand away so he could speak again, catching your gaze and holding it so you were unable to look anywhere else. “I really am sorry,” he spoke, his tone so sincere it kind of jarred you. “But I’m here now, and  _very_  interested to know what your rushed phone call was about.”

Mmm, right. That.

You had been so ready to blurt it out and get it over when you had first made that call, that now when he was actually here, it was like you had lost that superhuman nerve. What’s the worst he would do when you told him, though? Make fun of you? He did that already. It’s not like he would get mad or anything about your profession. If anything, he would just be a little shocked. You could always brush it off as a joke. Not like he knew you broke up with your boyfriend earlier in what was clearly your mind snapped crisis.

Still. Now you just couldn’t fucking say it. You wanted to slap your own self.

“It’s nothing,” you murmured as heat flushed your cheeks, admittedly sounding a bit defeated. You leaned forward to press the cloth to his lip once again in hopes it would stop him from replying. It worked, but his intense charcoal lined gaze was heavy as it studied you. You just tried to ignore it the best you could, reoccupying yourself on your work yet again.

Unlucky for you, you were a dumbass in thinking that fixating on his lips would in any way be less of a god damn distraction. 

Taking the cloth away yet again, the bleeding thankfully stopped, but you couldn’t stop yourself from lightly resting your hand under his jaw and swiping your thumb so gently over the cut to make sure it wasn’t badly split enough that it would start bleeding again. At least, that’s why you told yourself you did it. Slowly you began to subconsciously lean forward, enough that you didn’t even realize you had. That was, of course, until Klaus’s voice cut through your near absorption with a knowingly soft-spoken, “what did you want to tell me?” his eyes still just as penetrating.

You sucked in a breath.

And then your phone began to ring.

Stumbling back a bit as the full realization of what was happening hit you harder than that one-time Ben threw a frisbee at your face, you fumbled for your cell in your back pocket as Klaus stood from his seat, a funny little panicked look crossing his face as he said, “don’t answer that!”. Giving him a questioning stare followed by an oh so eloquent, “what?” you finally peered down at the screen to see your ex’s name flash across. Weird. As you accepted to call and held it up to your ear, Klaus behind you made a half sigh-half grumbled noise of failure that had you turning around and sticking your tongue out at him before you offered a simple “hello?” to the man on the other end of the phone.

“Look, I don’t know why you broke up with me but I’m pretty sure you didn’t need to also have your fucking friend find me and sucker punch me in the face. You proved your point enough at lunch, don’t you think?

Your friend? What the hell was he going on about, you didn’t send anyone—

Oh.

Turning back around to face 'your friend', you gave him a hard look as you replied back into the phone, “I'll deal with it,” Klaus audibly gulped before he started a sprint towards your door. “Sorry,” you grunted back into the phone before ending the call, running after him before he could reach the door handle and jumping right on his back, tackling him down to your carpeted floor. You both struggled against each other’s grip for a moment until you won, pinning him to his back as you held him down by straddling his chest.

“Klaus, you can’t go beating people up!”

“Oh, really?” His mockery ran thick. “You might be more convincing if you hadn’t just tackled me to the floor!”

“Boohoo, does baby need a bottle?”

 “No, baby needs a far more… typically natural food source, if you know what I mean.”

Okay, boob joke, that was funny. But you had to keep being mad or he’d take the opportunity to weaken your vigour.

“Take this seriously!” You bit out, pushing yourself off his chest and standing up, running your hands through your hair in frustration. You turned back to look at him as he managed to get himself off the floor as well, plucking a piece of lint off of his swirly, brightly colored shirt. “Why did you do it? And no more stupid stories. Tell me the truth.” You hoped it wasn’t because Klaus found out about your break up and actually thought it was  _him_  breaking up with  _you._

Klaus was silent as he thought, rubbing a hand down his face and then wincing when he realized it was still banged up. He was stalling. For once in his life, he was stalling, and your stomach dropped in concern. “Klaus?” You pushed, your voice dropping lowly as you took a few steps closer to him. He looked at you with eyes that didn’t pity, but eyes that were empathetic nonetheless. “I was at the bar and I saw your boyfriend with someone else. At first, I thought well hey! Could be a coincidence or even a co-worker, but then they started to play a stumbling, virginal looking version of suck face and I just got up and punched him.” Standing back up off the ground, he advanced towards you and closed the remaining distance between you as he continued, “I think that called for a bit of violence don’t you think? I know you’re mad, but if you look at it my way, really it was a favour. You’re welcome! I was defending your honour, a true knight in shining armour, if you will and—”

“Klaus, I broke up with him.”

He paused at that. “On the phone just now? I didn’t hear that part.” Ugh. 

“No, idiot, earlier today! He seriously didn’t say anything about it after you just up and attacked him?” You groaned, crossing your arms over your chest and giving him an exasperated look.

“I think he was too busy trying to scratch my eyes out,” Klaus replied before he let out a singular small laugh. “You finally broke up with him though, yeah? Good for you. Don’t think he ever liked me much.”

“You’ve stolen his money before and tried to steal his cat once,” you reminded him, “I don’t think you liked him much either.”

“Well, he's boring. All I can ever hear come out of his mouth are the words taxes, bills, and brunch,” he stated with a small shudder of his body.  

“Is that why you punched him?” You interrogated, “I understand you thought you were defending my honour or whatever the fuck, but even if we hadn’t broken up, you could have just told me to my face and let me deal with it.” Klaus was silent at that. Whether it was because he felt like a chastised child or he was holding something else back, you didn’t know. “Why did you do it, Klaus? Really?”

“You really want me to answer that?” He questioned back slowly, taking another step towards you.

You kept your arms crossed against your chest. “No, I asked because it was clearly the polite thing to do in this social context.” Klaus blinked at your attempt at sarcasm, and you sighed harshly, uncrossing your arms just to shake your hands, “just tell me!”

And tell you he did.

Kind of.

In a blur of motion, Klaus bridged the remaining space between you, resting a hand on the small of your back as the other cradled your face, his lips smashing into yours, no warning and no gentleness, simply just a craving and desire that rivaled even your own. Pressing yourself against him, you couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped you, breath against breath, heat against heat, tongue against tongue. You tangled your hands into his soft brunette curls, and he released his tight hold only to pick you up, wrapping your legs around his waist.

Breaking apart, he tugged slightly on your bottom lip with his teeth before letting go with a smile, gently bumping his nose with yours. You had to take a moment to fully catch your breath, but he filled the silence. “I showed you mine, now show me yours,” he smirked, leaning into the crook of your neck to murmur into your ear, “I punched that walking sweater vest cause I couldn’t imagine someone wanting to give  _this_  up with you. I love it. And you.” Fuck. Cue that ‘it’s getting hot in here’ track. “He was also drinking vodka mixed with water. What offensive barbarian does that to vodka?”

You laughed at that, shoving his shoulder with little force before wrapping your arms right back around his neck. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” you chuckled. “It’s probably why I broke up with him at lunch. Ordered the same thing, and I realized, now how can I love a man like that when I have Klaus who freely breaks into my apartment when he pleases and beats up men I never asked him too? I only feel like I need to throw a punch at someone of your choice to prove I love you too.”

Klaus hummed at that, swiping a gentle thumb across your cheek as he moved his head to the side. “I thought you were against beating people up?” he mused.

“I’m not opposed to getting a little rough sometimes,” you shrugged with a sly grin. Klaus’s own smile matched in return. “Clearly. You can tackle me to the floor again if you like?” He offered, just before he brought his lips back down towards yours, sliding you down to the ground along with him as you let a squealed a delighted laugh.

“Well if you’re offering, want to give monkey boy a bit of a smack next time you see him? I really do think he’s intimidated by my beauty and will attack me any day now.”

“Klaus," you warned, "shut up." 

And then you kissed him again, and never wanted to stop. 

Well. Never wanted to stop until you moved on to an activity that was a little bit better. 


End file.
